UK, France and Germany secretly negotiating on EU Budget

[Dr. FIVE]

Kennyesq internal Tory email

We hear and we take notice, as always, of what Parliament has said.

MPs on both sides of the vote want to see EU spending kept down as effectively as possible at a time of restraint and reductions at home. The only difference is about the tactics of doing so.

The Prime Minister has taken the toughest position of any Prime Minister in history – a freeze has never been achieved before – and when you realise 17 out 26 other countries are net gainers from the budget these will obviously be difficult negotiations.

The Prime Minister will continue to do everything possible to achieve the best deal we can deliver for the British taxpayer.

This is all in contrast to a Labour Party who never achieved a freeze, never even asked for freeze and allowed vast increases to British contributions to the EU budget. For them this has been about cheap politics rather than taking responsibility for how we get the best deal for Britain.

[DCon]

could this be true?

[Apjp]

Sorry for the fuss but since when is there a 'c' in negotiate?

[DCon]

Sorry for the fuss but since when is there a 'c' in negotiate?

PJ is exploring his French side

The classical Latin word meaning something like "doing business" used a "t" but it came to English via the French form with a "c". So either is correct and both are used. The "t" version is by far the more usual especially in the US but as e2efour notes the pronunciation is swinging back to the French form - so maybe the spelling will follow.

http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=1199034

[PaddyJoe]

Sorry for the fuss but since when is there a 'c' in negotiate?

On a Tuesday when there's a full moon and an 'r' in the month?
Corrected

[Greengoddess]

On a Tuesday when there's a full moon and an 'r' in the month?
Corrected

Seemingly we would all do very well to explore our French side!



http://www.thejournal.ie/franco-irish/news/

[DCon]

Cameron going after the structural funds.

The Prime Minister will use a European budget summit later this month to call for far-reaching changes to the EU’s £279 billion structural funds, which cost British taxpayers more than £4 billion a year.

His move will delight Conservative backbenchers after the Government was defeated in a Commons vote on Europe last week, but risks a new rift with his Liberal Democrat Coalition partners.

A senior government source said that the structural funds system was “particularly silly” and changes were “achievable” given the prospect that other nations would back Britain’s demand for reform.

The European Commission has warned of widespread fraud and questioned how money is spent in Spain and Italy.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/poli...ash-fight.html

[DCon]

Der Spiegel say that Germany and France are also against the budget increases as planned.
Also point out that the UK veto isn't worth a thing

The Brits aren't alone in their demand to freeze the budget. Other EU net contributors, including Germany, believe that increases to the Brussels budget cannot be justified to the public. But the other countries appear to be more willing to compromise with the European Commission.

A paralyzing debate lasting months is the last thing Merkel wants. In an effort to push things forward, she plans to visit Cameron in London on Nov. 7 to urge the prime minister to take a step toward compromise as others have as well. It seems doubtful that she will find much success. Cameron reiterated on Wednesday that he would apply his veto if the other EU member states didn't fall in line with his position.

Approval of the EU budget requires a unanimous vote -- without a "yes" from London, the seven-year financing cannot be passed. Still, a veto wouldn't be in Britain's interests, either. If London did take the step, it would mean that a new EU budget would have to be passed each year until a deal could be reached on longer-term financing. The catch for Britain is that an annual budget would require only a qualified majority, meaning other EU member states could overrule the UK. It's likely the budget would then increase each year. Indeed, this is the argument Cameron is using within his own party to convince lawmakers that some sort of deal in Brussels would be better than none.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/...-a-864693.html

[DCon]

"More Europe" mentioned again by a Johnny Insider

On Friday, European Commissioner for Financial Programming and Budget Janusz Lewandowski, Poland's representative in the EU's executive, said it was time for Britain to make a fundamental decision regarding its future in the European Union. "Of course there are limits," he said in an interview with the German daily Süddeutsche Zeitung. "We can't finance more Europe with substantially less money."

When asked if he was referring to budgetary criticism coming from London, Lewandowski said: "Of course I am also referring to Great Britain. Either they see their future in the European Union in the long term or they don't."

Lewandowski's comments come on the heels of several brash comments on the budget coming from leading British politicians. Parliament on Wednesday heaped pressure on Prime Minister David Cameron to push through deep cuts to the EU's proposed budget, as several members of his own party joined the opposition in a non-binding vote on the matter.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/...-a-864941.html

[DCon]

tomorrow's Telegraph



Someone should tell them that Kevin Cardiff was shipped over to sort out the audit problems

[DCon]

European solidarity

Negotiators for EU governments and the European Parliament walked out without even discussing next year's spending blueprint, after 8 hours spent squabbling over a request for 9 billion euros in extra cash to fill a funding gap in 2012.

"Under these conditions, we felt that negotiations which hadn't really begun by six o'clock in the evening couldn't reasonably be expected to finish during the night," said the parliament's lead negotiator, French lawmaker Alain Lamassoure.

European compromise

If no deal is reached on the 2013 budget before the end of the year, the budget for 2012 will be divided into 12 equal parts and paid monthly into the EU's coffers, leading to disarray in the bloc's spending in areas such as agriculture.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/...r&dlvrit=56943

[PaddyJoe]

[quote=DCon;290588]European solidarity



European compromise

Negotiators for EU governments and the European Parliament walked out without even discussing next year's spending blueprint, after 8 hours spent squabbling over a request for 9 billion euros in extra cash to fill a funding gap in 2012.

"Under these conditions, we felt that negotiations which hadn't really begun by six o'clock in the evening couldn't reasonably be expected to finish during the night," said the parliament's lead negotiator, French lawmaker Alain Lamassoure.

Maybe, finally, somebody with a bit of common sense.
Those 4 am press conferences that have become standard for EU summits aren't doing anybody any favours.

[DCon]

Gilmore expects a deal

anaiste Eamon Gilmore said he expects a deal to be reached on the European Union budget.

Speaking today, Mr Gilmore said it was European Council president Herman Van Rompuy's intention to present a new set of proposals at a meeting of heads of state and government ministers with a view to getting agreement.

"Over the course of the meeting last night I think it is fair to say that the positions of the different member states became clearer. President Van Rompuy said he intends to try and reach agreement on this budget by this weekend," Mr Gilmore said on RTE's Morning Ireland.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/...breaking7.html

[DCon]

Hermie has a proposal. Severe cuts in agriculture spending

One week before heads of states and government are to convene a special summit in Brussels to discuss the 2014-2020 budget, European Council President Herman Van Rompuy tabled a €950-billion proposal that is €75 billion less than the Commission's initial recommendation.

Under the proposal, first published by EurActiv France yesterday (14 November), severe cuts are foreseen in agriculture -- a move immediately rejected by Paris -- and in cohesion policy, which would certainly antagonise the newer EU member states from Central and Eastern Europe.

The proposal foresees keeping the UK rebate, but introduces a new system under which the country would pay partly for its own refund.

“We do not accept the proposal to reduce by €25 billion the money for the Common Agricultural Policy, which we consider a policy for growth,” Bernard Cazeneuve, France's European affairs minister, told his country’s parliament yesterday.

On the other extreme, Sweden asked for more cuts. “The revised proposal means some small steps in the right direction but it's not enough,” Swedish EU Minister Birgitta Ohlsson said, adding: “We need a clear model for reducing agriculture subsidies.”

http://www.euractiv.com/euro-finance...ro-news-516056

[Apjp]

I've a revolutionary idea. How about countries decide on their own budgets?

What would be wrong in taking things back permanently to the old EEC model whereby we are all in a customs union, without a commission making all our laws, with each state having sovereign control over economic, military and foreign policy(including currencies) and maybe instead of a powerless parliament we could have a europe of nation states deciding on their own issues and a general assembly along the lines of the UN to discuss matters of mutual interest? Ireland certainly had far more input in the old EEC than the odern day EU which has emerged since 1992, and we were not compelled to kow tow to bigger or richer nations.